I’ve been busy in the garden this past week pruning some shrubs and trees. Most of my summer blooming spirea have finished blooming and this year I gave them quite a severe pruning to control their size and encourage nice new foliage. In addition, I’ve pruned back some tall weigela branches. Pruning weigela is not… Read more »
House Wren Makes Himself At Home
What a thrill it was to watch what I think is a house wren make a home in one of my birdhouse gourds a couple of weeks ago. This gourd is right outside our kitchen, adjacent to the kitchen patio, so I enjoy it’s bubbly song and energetic bouncing back and forth each morning while… Read more »
Staking Tomatoes
Every year it’s the same question — what is the best way to stake up our tomatoes? While you can grow tomatoes on the ground, I prefer them staked up for several reasons. I think they produce more good tomatoes that way, the tomatoes are less likely to rot or get eaten by slugs, the… Read more »
The Peonies Are Hanging On
Despite a couple days of rain, the peonies are stilling blooming well. Peonies are my favourite garden perennial. I mean, what more could you ask for — fantastic enormous blooms, easy care once established, fairly disease resistant and a green foliage plant that looks great most of the remainder of the season. While I place… Read more »
The Year Of The Aphid
In the science fiction book ‘The Day Of The Triffids’ plants eat meat, walk around and end up attacking everyone. Well I wish the plants in my garden could do something similar to the aphids attacking them this year. Populations are quite high already this year with almost all of my summer blooming Spirea showing… Read more »
Treating Boxwood Psyllid Organically
Fighting pests in a pesticide free Ontario can certainly be a challenge. I have found that one of the key solutions is to know your pest, learn it’s life cyle and investigate which organic solution might work. It certainly does make us have to think before we spray which is a good thing. My boxwood… Read more »
Red-bellied Woodpecker. A Rare Sight in Ontario.
I was thrilled to see this Red-bellied Woodpecker at our feeder this winter. I’ve had a challenge getting a picture of him as he stays for only a short period of time each visit. The Red-bellied Woodpecker is one of the rarest of Ontario woodpeckers, preferring mature deciduous forests, primarily Carolinian forest, for its habitat.… Read more »
How To Make Birdhouse Gourds
Growing The Gourds Growing your own ornamental gourds and making a birdhouse gourd is great fun and surprisingly easy. And it makes a great natural addition to a bird garden. I grew our own birdhouse gourds from seed very easily. Although I started the seeds indoors I’m not sure that is really necessary and in… Read more »
Spring Is Moving Fast
It seems we wait a long time for spring to arrive and when it finally does there’s just not enough of it to accomplish all of our spring gardening tasks. We’ve had some good weather of late so I’ve been able to catch up on a lot of yard work. Most of the beds are… Read more »
Our New Garage is Taking Shape
I’m please to say the construction of our new garage – barn is proceeding nicely. We’ve had good weather this week and it looks like they will have all the framing finished. You can really see the building taking shape. The only downside is the huge spot of compacted dirt on top of the lawn… Read more »